中国学者文学英译的困顿与出路

The Hardship and Outlet of Chinese Scholars’ English Translation of Literature

一百多年来,中国学者在向外译介中国文学、传播中国文化的崎岖道路上不断攀爬探索,虽挫败连连,但却越挫越勇,留下了许多宝贵的经验和教训。中国学者的文学英译有其自身的文化与美学价值,有着汉学家的中国文学英译所不能比拟的作用和意义。与霍克斯的译本相比,杨宪益和戴乃迭翻译的《红楼梦》在英语世界遭受冷遇,并不是因为杨译本质量不佳,而是因为其采用的以忠实文本为圭臬的翻译策略在当时来说有些超前,而现在则已经具备了接受这样翻译的国际语境;老舍将其小说《离婚》的英译者伊文·金告上法庭,并收回版权自行翻译,只因其译者在发挥其译者主体性时失去了底线,歪曲了中国文学;麦家的长篇小说《解密》在英语世界的成功提醒中国的英语学者,重视和讲求文本迻译策略的同时,还要强调译本的宣传推介等市场营销工作。及时总结中国学者文学外译的经验和教训对中国文学文化走向世界并融入其中具有重要现实意义。

For more than a hundred years,Chinese scholars have been exploring the translation of Chinese literature.Their work produced a lot of valuable lessons.The English translation of literature by Chinese scholars has its own cultural and aesthetic value.Its effect and significance is incomparable with the English translation of literature by sinologists.Compared with Hawkes’translation,A Dream of Red Mansions translated by Yang Xianyi and Dai Naidie was not popular in the English-speaking world.It was not because Yang’s translation had a poor quality,but because their faithful translation strategy was a little advanced at that time,while such a translation version is accepted now.Lao She sued Evan King,the translator of his novel Divorce,withdrew the copyright and translated the novel by himself because the translator had distorted Chinese literature.The success of Decoded written by Mai Jia in the English-speaking world reminds the English scholars in China to attach importance to translation strategies,publicity of translations,and marketing strategies.It is of great practical significance to summarize the experience and lessons of Chinese Scholars’literature translation in time.